hello, i'm gavin ramjaun and this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on the programme: liverpool are into the group stages of the champions league. they won convincingly over hoffenheim. and the victory means five english sides will compete in the groups for the first time. wayne rooney calls time on his england football career, announcing his retirement from the national team. he departs as the country's record goalscorer. and the fight of the year edges closer. we hearfrom both mayweather and mcgregor as they square up for theirfinal press conference in las vegas. welcome to the programme. liverpool are through to the group stage of the uefa champions league. jurgen klopp‘s side got the better of hoffenheim at anfield. liverpool were 2—1 up from the first leg in germany, and early goals from emre can and mohamed salah in the first 20 minutes extended their overall lead. can then scored his second of the match to make it 3—0 on the night, before mark uth pulled one backjust before half—time. mid—way through the second—half,

liverpool's roberto firmino scored against his former club. there was a late consolation for hoffenheim, but the english side won 4—2 on the night, and 6—3 on aggregate. for the club, for the team, what we wa nt for the club, for the team, what we want for the last 20 months. i know it is always like this. you will a lwa ys it is always like this. you will always find people who said, yeah, it is only the champions league. we have wa nted it is only the champions league. we have wanted to be part of it with all we have. and i thought the boys played a few pieces of outstanding football. how it is in a game like this, especially against an opponent like hoffenheim, you also have a few problems. that is how it is. really

happy with the deserved qualification for the group stage. elsewhere, fc copenhagen beat qarabag 2—1, but drew 2—2 on aggregate. south african striker dino ndlovu scored the away goal, which means the champions of azerbaijan go through. cska moscow beat young boys 2—0 on the night, 3—1 on aggregate. former champions steaua bucharest were thrashed 5—1 at home by sporting lisbon, and apoel nicosia are through 2—0 on aggregate after a 0—0 draw in prague. in the asian champions league, kawasaki frontale beat uruwa red diamonds 3—1 in the first leg of their all—japanese quarter—final. the home side took the lead just before half—time, with this goal from their captain yu kobayashi. that was his fifth goal of the competition. early in the second—half, their on—loan brazilian striker elsinho prodded home kawasaki's second. with 14 minutes left, yuki moto beat the offside trap to score a potentially vital away goal for 2007 champions. but with five minutes to go, kobayashi scored his second goal of the night to seal a 3—1 win.

wayne rooney has announced his retirement from international football. the 31—year—old recently left manchester united to return to boyhood club everton. england's all—time leading goal scorer is enjoying a revival in form, with two goals in the last two league games, but he's rejected a call—up from england manager gareth southgate ahead of next month's world cup qualifiers. in a statement, rooney says... it is always up to the player, the feeling of the player, what he thinks is their best to do. and i respect that. i respect if he makes a different decision about his future as a national player. i think it isa future as a national player. i think it is a good decision for him. it is a good decision for everton. because that means in the international duty he will have some days off for the family. i'm not entirely surprised wayne has called it a day internationally.

i think it is a sensible decision. there is always a lot of speculation whether he should be in or not, then if he's in the squad, if he is the captain, if he plays or not. when you get to your 30s as all footballers know, the powers wane a little bit, without meaning to make the pun! i think it is a good decision at the right time, a lot of good young players coming through and wayne has had a fabulous international career. people argue about the fact that tournament wise it has never really happen for him, apart from when he burst on the scene in portugal, where he was so good. you have to remember that for the vast majority of his career he has only really been the one england world—class player. he has gone in at a time when we

have struggled. we haven't had enough world—class players alongside him. he had that of course when he burst onto the scene, when he was the youngster in the golden generation. and with a little more canny management of that tournament, and without his injury, of course, he might have gone on to actually win something for england. it's set to be the most lucrative boxing match in history. floyd mayweather, a veteran of the ring, and multiple world champion, is coming out of retirement to fight the self—styled ufc superstar, conor mcgregor. the pair came face to face at their final press conference, before the big showdown in las vegas on saturday for the super—welterweight title. the build—up has had its fair share of trash talk and abuse. mayweather, who went 49 fights undefeated during his career, is the heavy favourite against mcgregor, a man making his professional boxing debut this weekend. august 26, he is gonna bring his

best and it is not gonna be easy, conor, it is not going to be easy. and remember, many pacquiao got bombs, shane mosley got bombs and all of those guys are going into the hall of fame. 0ne all of those guys are going into the hall of fame. one thing about me, remember this, the same way you give it, you have to be able to take it. remember this. i have ta ken i have taken the markers of queensbury rules very seriously and lam going queensbury rules very seriously and i am going to go out and perform. i am not going to implement anything. lam going am not going to implement anything. i am going to out—box this man at his own game. that is how much of a different level i am to him. and when it is all said and done, you know what, i am gonna feel a little bit sad, because you should have ke pt bit sad, because you should have kept your mouth shut, you should have left me in the other game, the ruthless game where we bounce heads into the floor, you should have left

me where i was because it is meant is not on my level. he is not even a quarter of the man i am, so we are gonna c and youse are all going to eat your words. thank you all. i look forward to saturday night. there has been another shock at the badminton world championships, with chinese numberi seeds lijunhui and liu yuchen, crashing out in their opening match. it follows a surprise loss for olympic silver—medallist lee chong wei in the men's singles. nick hope is in glasgow for us. china's lee liu have been successful through the competition and they headed here after winning the asian championships earlier in the year. they were out forced in their opening game. they were up against the indonesian pair, who were unseeded, though it is worth pointing out they have one previous world titles with previous partners. this duo teamed up late last year

but despite losing the opening set to the chinese they fought back to ta ke to the chinese they fought back to take the next two. two of the favourites progressed in the singles to the next round, chen long defeating the indonesian in straight sets and the other was long's other teammate, lin dan, who beat emil holst/ lijunhui/ teammate, lin dan, who beat emil holst/ li junhui/ liu teammate, lin dan, who beat emil holst/ lijunhui/ liu yuchen. lin dan, looking for a sixth career world title this week recovered to win in three. —— lin dan. thursday's action will see all of those who made it through to the round of 16 can pick and friday will be the quarter—finals with the medal matches over the weekend. chris froome has extended his lead in the vuelta a espana, following wednesday's fifth stage. the stage was won by alexey lutsenko from kazakstan. the astana rider sprinted clear to win by more than a0 seconds from eritrea's merhawi kudus. meanwhile, froome finished safely in the pack, and he's extended his overall lead to ten

seconds from the american tejay van garderen. finally, to tennis, and zhang shuai is through to the quarter—finals of the connecticut open in new haven. the world number 29 from china beat the polish qualifier magda linette in three sets. zhang won 63, 6—7, 6—3, and will now play another qualifier, elise mertens of belgium, for a place in the last four. that is all from us for now. you can get all the latest sports news at our website. that's bbc.com/sport. but from me and the rest of the sport today team, goodbye. hello there. as we head towards the bank holiday weekend, there is some much quieter weather on the way, which is just as well, after all the heavy rain and flooding that we had in northern ireland, and here in north yorkshire, too. that rain, on the last of the muggy air that swept across the uk.

behind it, fresher conditions followed, and we saw the cloud breaking, and some sunshine. and over the next few days there'll be some more sunshine. there'll be a few showers around, more particularly towards the north—west of the uk. now, the wet weather came on that weather front there. that has long gone out into the north sea. still dawdling, perhaps, towards the northern isles for a while. lower pressure towards the north—west, this is where we will see most of the showers. higher pressures towards the south. not a big high pressure, but higher pressure. hence the drier weather here. a sunny start across much of the midlands, east anglia and the south—east of england, and some sunshine further west, as well, across the south—east of england and wales. just the chance of a little bit more cloud, and maybe one or two light showers. the odd shower coming into the north—west of england, as well. much of north—east england, and indeed eastern scotland, starting dry and sunny. still some rain up towards shetland, and a few showers arriving towards the highlands. most of northern ireland starting the day dry. but i think we will see some showers, or even longer spells of rain, pushing in closer to that area of low pressure in the north—west, and turning

wetter again in western fringes of scotland. a few sharp showers for the north—east of scotland, and possibly towards the north—east of england. most of england and wales in the afternoon, though, will be fine and dry, with some sunshine. pleasant enough, with light winds for the most part, and temperatures near normal for this time of year. it will turn chilly, though, in the evening, especially across much of england and wales, where we'll have clearer skies. up towards the north—west, a bit more of a breeze, perhaps, and still the chance of more cloud and some rain. temperatures will be a bit lower than they have been recently. into friday, lots of sunshine, probably more sunshine on friday for southern england, midlands, east anglia and lincolnshire. bit more cloud bubbling up further north, a few showers for scotland. some of these could be rather heavy, and some longer spells of rain arriving into northern ireland, too. temperatures are lower, but warming up towards the south—east, with more sunshine, probably getting into the mid—20s. towards the north—west, though, we've got that area of low pressure as we head into the weekend, threatening to bring some more showery rain here. this area of low pressure in biscay could bring the risk of a shower to southern and eastern england, particularly on saturday night.

but on the whole, it looks like it will be dry for much of england and wales. some sunshine, and feeling pleasantly warm in the sunshine, with light winds, too. further north, some showers, most of the showers for scotland and also across northern ireland. goodbye. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. i'm mike embley. our top stories: fighting the so—called islamic state in syria. we have an exclusive report as president assad's forces ta ke report as president assad's forces take us to the front line. translation: we are hellbent on victory, we are not scared of death. i'm a commander on the ground and i've been wounded three times. 0n terror alert in rotterdam. a rock show is cancelled at the last minute. police seize a van containing gas

canisters near the venue. typhoon hato hits mainland china with hurricane force winds and torrential rain. it's left at least six people dead in macau and hong kong. there's growing concern that an online auction of rhino horns in south africa will trigger an increase in poaching.